VIENNA, July 6, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A former general and a former Syrian police officer will hear on Monday in Vienna whether they have been found guilty of torturing opponents of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The trial was the latest to see suspects from the Syrian civil war tried in European courts under the legal tool of universal jurisdiction, allowing judges to rule on alleged serious crimes committed abroad.

Khaled al-Halabi, 63, a former intelligence services brigadier general who has been in pre-trial detention since 2024, is charged with torture, aggravated coercion, sexual coercion, as well as multiple counts of serious bodily harm.

Musab Abu Rukbah, 54, a former local police lieutenant colonel, is accused of serious bodily harm, aggravated coercion and sexual coercion in the city of Raqa between April 2011 and March 2013.

Both pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial beginning in June and face up to 10 years in prison.

Syrian officials have also faced trials in France, Germany, Sweden and Belgium for alleged crimes committed during the country's civil war.

Austrian prosecutors accused the duo of "having, on numerous occasions, ordered or failed to oppose the mistreatment of members of a protest movement".

Halabi -- a Druze, who fled Raqa in 2013, just before the Islamic State group overran the city -- denied that torture took place while he was in command.

Several detainees testified in court how they were severely beaten by guards while the two accused were in command of the place they were held.

"I'm still afraid to this day," one man testified in court, recounting how al-Halabi interrogated him, during which the soles of his feet were beaten with electric cables.

Several detainees also said how they were kept in crowded, tiny cells, with one of them saying he was held for eight or nine days naked, with cold water repeatedly poured on him.

The prosecution said Halabi got "direct instructions" from the Damascus government and used violence "systematically" with "standardised torture methods," including beatings and being hosed down.

The two Syrians applied for asylum in Austria in 2015.

Senior Austrian officials suspected of having protected the former brigadier general were acquitted in 2023.

Prosecutors had accused them of helping him obtain protection in the Alpine country, referencing an agreement allegedly concluded in May 2015 with Israel's Mossad intelligence service.

Mossad is said to have brought the Syrian military officer to Austria from France, where he was at the time, according to local media.

When asked in court, Halabi said relatives helped him.

According to Austrian news agency APA, the agreement with Mossad, code-named "White Milk", had been overseen by Martin Weiss, then head of the Austrian intelligence service (BVT).

Weiss is on the run in Dubai and wanted for supposed links to fugitive Austrian spy, Jan Marsalek, who is suspected of being protected by Moscow.